Dana White Confirms That Lightweight Title Fight An Option For Conor McGregor After UFC 202 Victory

Conor McGregor’s options going forward have been discussed with great fervour in the hours since his enthralling majority decision victory over Nate Diaz on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

This intense interest in McGregor’s next move is entirely understandable, as there are so many different and exciting avenues he can seemingly go down. However, other than a rematch with Jose Aldo, which UFC president Dana White has said on numerous occasions is likely to be ‘The Notorious’ one’s next assignment, most of the scenarios being mentioned are somewhat speculative.

We don’t know for certain that if McGregor wanted welterweight king Tyron Woodley or former champ Georges St-Pierre that the promotion would be willing to accommodate him.

What’s more, a rubber-match with Diaz seems to be off the table, for now at least.

“We’re definitely not doing this a third time right now” – Dana White on FS1

However, Dana White has confirmed that Conor does have at least one other concrete option besides Aldo.

TMZ Sports spoke to White in recent hours and he told them that if the 28-year-old Pay-per-view star is willing to give up his UFC featherweight title, he will be granted a shot at newly crowned lightweight titleholder Eddie Alvarez.

“Dana says Conor has two options — either fight Aldo or surrender his title to him — or cut weight to 155 and fight Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title,” read the short piece.

This will be music to Alvarez’s ears, as he has spent the last month or so calling out McGregor at every opportunity. It probably sounds a lot less lyrical to the top contenders in the stacked division however.

Alvarez claimed the title with a first-round stoppage win over Rafael dos Anjos in July.

McGregor was of course supposed to challenge for the 155-pound belt in March at UFC 196, but then champion Rafael dos Anjos withdrew from the event with a foot-injury and was subsequently replaced by Nate Diaz. It was the beginning of a new and winding welterweight saga that may or may not have come to an end at UFC 202.

Based on recent comments in the media, the SBG product has maintained his interest in the lightweight gold, but it will be interesting to see if he is willing to relinquish his featherweight strap in exchange for this opportunity. He has been bullish in his refusal to do so in the past, and at the post-fight press conference on Saturday, he still seemed intent on keeping the title that he ripped from the aforementioned Aldo last December.

“I don’t think they’re gonna strip me of the belt. They want to give my belt to the guy I knocked out in 13 seconds and bury that division in the prelims?”